Violet and Victor Write the Best-Ever Bookworm Book

by Alice Kuipers, Bethanie Deeney Murguia (Illustrator)

Overview

Violet and Victor Small are twins on a mission: to write the best book in the whole, entire world—together! Victor is reluctant, but Violet is determined, and soon the ideas can't come quickly enough.

They begin to write a story about a hungry Bookworm who is eating all the books in the library. Thanks to Victor's brilliant ideas, Violet is able to save the day (and the library).

This delightful story-within-a-story is filled with good-natured sibling rivalry, and focuses on the spirit of cooperation, the satisfaction of a job well-done, and the magic of storytelling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316212007
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	12/02/2014
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Alice Kuipers is British, but lives in Canada. She is the award-winning author of three YA novels, and she was working on the fourth when Violet and Victor came along. Find Alice here: alicekuipers.com.

Bethanie Deeney Murguia earned an MFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and is the creator of Buglette the Messy Sleeper and Zoe Gets Ready. Bethanie, her family, and their dog, Disco, live in northern California. Her website is aquapup.com.

Editorial Reviews

10/13/2014
Twins collaborate (sort of) to write a story in this first picture book from Kuipers (Lost for Words). Violet Small, “six minutes older” than brother Victor, is an expert speller, but she relies on him for ideas. Not that she always takes them: Victor’s idea for a story about Wilbur, “the biggest, strongest, bravest worm in the worm farm,” immediately morphs into a tale about “Violet... the cleverest, strongest, bravest girl in the whole entire school.” In color-coded mixed-media illustrations (purple elements signify Violet’s contributions to the developing story, orange for Wilbur), Murguia (I Feel Five!) creates extravagant visual representations of the possibilities that await readers (and writers) of stories: a volcano crafted of dictionary pages joins origami birds and elves and dragons that could have wandered out of one of Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books. While the twins’ relationship isn’t exactly a balanced one (Victor basically acquiesces to Violet’s inner editor throughout), it’s believable, entertaining, and likely to inspire readers to try putting their own stories together (with or without sibling input). Ages 3–6. Author’s agent: Jackie Kaiser, Westwood Creative Artists. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Murguia creates extravagant visual representations of the possibilities that await readers (and writers) of stories...Entertaining, and likely to inspire readers to try putting their own stories together."—Publishers Weekly

"Clever fare for aspiring bookworms (especially siblings)."—Kirkus

"Fascinating illustrations are fun to study...The great blend of text and illustrations combine for an enjoyable story about writing a story."—Booklist

"A creative story and the sweetest tale ever."—School Library Connection

From the Publisher

2014-10-06
Twins collaborate in writing an original story about a "book-eating monster."When bossy Violet Small decides to "write the best-ever book in the whole entire world," she cajoles her twin brother, Victor, into helping. Far more interested in his pet worms, Victor suggests their hero should be a strong, brave worm, which Violet promptly changes to a strong, brave girl named Violet. Overhearing the school librarian complain that pages are missing from a book, Victor creates a gripping plot starring their heroine, who "creeps by comic books," "slips through stories," "eyeballs encyclopedias," "peers in pages" and "flies through fairy tales" in her quest to save the library from a terrible book-eating monster. The twins' editorializing is tracked from page to page, with Violet speaking in purple type and Victor in orange, while their versions of the story appear in childlike print in lavender and orange notebook-paper text boxes. Murguia comically presents the twins in graphite pencil sketches and, in "homage to the printed page," combines Photoshopped multimedia images from books, maps, library cards and origami sculptures to create fantastical backgrounds for their fictional hunt for the not-so-terrible book-eating monster. Clever fare for aspiring bookworms (especially siblings). (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews

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